On 22 August, students from BDSC were recognised at the Youth Project NZ Volunteering Awards Night, which celebrates young people making a difference through volunteering and service in their communities.
Rainie Tang 13B1 received the Inspirational Award, a new award created by the judges after they were particularly moved by her nomination. Rainie was originally nominated for the Intergenerational Award by a 10-year-old student she met while leading BDSC students in an outreach programme back in May at the student鈥檚 primary school. During the leadership workshop, Rainie made a lasting impression on her. The student was particularly enthusiastic about the nomination, emailing more than five times afterwards to add further details and memories about her interaction with Rainie. The nomination described the impact Rainie had made and how she had inspired the student to become a better leader. The judges felt the nomination demonstrated an impact beyond the existing award categories and created the Inspirational Award to recognise this. See the attached nomination for the student鈥檚 own words.
Mayin Lal 12J5 received the Environmental Award. Since 2021, Mayin has been an active volunteer throughout Howick Ward with his lucid journey beginning with running water testing for four local streams as part of Science Fair. This experience with water testing soon became what he specialises in and throughout the following five years, he has run countless testing days for members of the community, school and to collect data for Auckland Council. Beyond stream analysis, he also leads volunteer days with local organisations since 2023.
These have included nature walks, tree plantings and rubbish pickups throughout Howick, Otara and recently Mangere. Mayin also runs a rat trap line in his local reserve while running water testing for Kilkenny Stream for Auckland Council. This, alongside dozens of other events, allowed him to be nominated for and win the Environmental Award by a member of the community he volunteers with and a friend. Whilst volunteering with te taiao is as important to him as his education, anyone from Howick can easily begin volunteering as well and find their own patch of NZ flora and fauna which they also treasure.